Mid-morning. You and Carol have had
breakfast and read the Saturday paper. You are listening to piano and guitar
solos upstairs while Carol is reading downstairs. No rain at the moment but you
had showers earlier. – Amorella
0911
hours. I like quiet mornings. We have nothing on the agenda as far as I know.
Quite pleasant.
You did your forty minutes of exercises then
took your glucose, which read 101. You had lunch at Potbelly’s on
Mason-Montgomery Road. You dropped Carol off at the Community Center for her
laps and in an hour you will be at the Regal Cinema to see “Ex Machina”. –
Amorella
1425
hours. We had a good lunch. I have given up my ‘Wreck’ sandwich for Carol’s Chicken
Salad, so now we buy a large and split it and save some money in the process. She
puts pickles, tomatoes and lettuce on her half and I have tried hot peppers,
etc. on mine but her extras taste better. It continues to be a rainy and quite
cool day so I’m glad there is a good movie out there. We saw “Lucy” last summer
and although it was not about artificial intelligence it was somewhat along the
order of higher intelligence with super-like powers. Seems to me I saw it twice
but of course Scarlet J. is one of my favorites. Her best was “Lost in
Translation” – that really hit close to home in my heart.
You wonder if humans will continue to
evolve. – Amorella
1435
hours. I was thinking about “Lucy”. I remember in Clarke’s Childhood’s End
the Overlords had reached a cul-de-sac. We, as a species, haven’t been around
long enough to gather observations of continuing physical changes in our
species or any other, just ends of species. Perhaps in a million years or so
this could change. I mean some of us have Neanderthal in our DNA. I suppose in
the far future a new class of Homo sapiens will be added to the species’ name; one
that is no longer born with an appendix for instance. In the Merlyn books it is
implied that higher consciousness allows us to survive physical death but in
real life there is still no scientific evidence of this. In Stranger in a
Strange Land Martians could discorporate.
** **
Stranger In a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction
novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein; it was
later republished in a longer "Uncut" edition in 1991. It tells the
story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood
after being born on the planet Mars
and raised by Martians.
The novel explores his interaction with—and eventual transformation of—terrestrial
culture. The title is an allusion to the phrase in Exodus 2:22. Moses flees ancient Egypt, where he
has lived all his life, and later marries Zipporah: Exodus 2:22:
"And she [Zippo'rah] bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I
have been a stranger in a strange land". KJV
Note: This page presents quotes
from both published editions of Heinlein's most famous work. The edited
first edition of 1961 (FE) contains some memorable quotes that are not in the
longer "Uncut" ACE/Putnam edition of 1991 (UC), based on his original
manuscripts, because a few significant lines were actually added, rather than
trimmed down, during the editing process of the first edition.
His Maculate Origin
Smith is not a man. He is an
intelligent creature with the genes and ancestry of a man, but he is not a
man...
•
ONCE UPON a time there was a
Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.
First line of "first
edition" of 1961 (FE)
•
ONCE UPON A TIME when the world
was young there was a Martian named Smith.
•
Valentine Michael Smith was as
real as taxes but he was a race of one.
•
First lines "uncut
edition" of Ace/Putnam 1991, Part1:Chapter1,p.5 (UC)
•
Smith is not a man. He is an
intelligent creature with the genes and ancestry of a man, but he is not a man.
He's more a Martian than a man. Until we came along he had never laid eyes on a
human being. He thinks like a Martian, he feels like a Martian. He's been
brought up by a race which has nothing in common with us. Why, they don't even
have sex. Smith has never laid eyes on a woman — still hasn't if my orders have
been carried out. He's a man by ancestry, a Martian by environment. Ace/Putnam
1991 Part1:Chapter3,p.10 (UC)
•
The abrupt change from rapport of
water ritual to a situation in which a newly won water brother might possibly
be considering withdrawal or discorporation would have thrown him into panic
had he not been consciously suppressing such disturbance. But he decided that
if it died now he must die at once also — he could not grok it in any other
wise, not after the giving of water. (FE), Ace/Putnam 1991 Part1:Chapter4,
p.20-21, (UC)
Ben, have you ever seen an angel?
•
There was so much to grok, so
little to grok from. (FE/UC)
•
Jill looked puzzled. "I
don't know how to express it. Yes, I do! — Ben, have you ever seen an
angel?"
•
"You, cherub. Otherwise
not."
•
"Well, neither have I — but
that is what he looked like. He had old, wise eyes in a completely placid face,
a face of unearthly innocence." She shivered. (UC)
•
There comes a time in the life of
every human when he or she must decide to risk "his life, his fortune, and
his sacred honor" on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are
merely overgrown children, can never be anything else. Jill Boardman
encountered her personal challenge — and accepted it — at 3:47 that afternoon. (UC)
•
Jill suddenly had the feeling
that Smith would unhesitatingly jump out the window if she told him to — in
which belief she was correct; he would have jumped, enjoyed every scant second
of the twenty-storey drop, and accepted without surprise or resentment the
discorporation on impact. Nor would he have been unaware that such a fall would
kill him; fear of death was an idea utterly beyond him. If a water brother
selected for him such a strange discorporation, he would cherish it and try to
grok. (UC)
This brother wanted him to place his whole body in the
water of life. No such honor had ever come to him; to the best of his knowledge
and belief no one had ever before been offered such a holy privilege. Yet he
had begun to understand that these others did have greater acquaintance with
the stuff of life… a fact not yet grokked but which he had to accept. (UC) .
. .
Selected and edited from
Wikipedia – Stranger in a Strange Land
** **
Evening. You had a snack supper then watched
ABC News, two episodes of “Modern Family” and one “Blue Bloods”. Carol is
upstairs reading The Target. You are thinking about the film “Ex
Machina”. – Amorella
2139
hours. It was good to watch a film where you can involve yourself on moral
implication of artificial intelligence. I give the art film four stars out of
five. It is an art film by design at least I think so. After seeing two or
three or four actresses fully frontal nude (all with pubic hair) Carol wondered
if this was a movie mostly for guys. My response was that if Ava the ‘livebot’
were conjured as a male how would ‘she’ represent Eve as the symbol of a
beginning of a new breed, so to speak? The nudity is very much art not sex, at
least the way I saw it though the sexuality is very much a part of the plot of
the film. I do not think of it as a guy movie. Ava is quite much conscious,
very human and ‘she’ is no less manipulative than any of the other humans on
the set. I like the conclusion. I see the film as an artistically rendered
character study not a hotshot action thriller; a nice change of pace. In real
life there will be livebots, probably of one sex or the other so humans can
more easily relate to them. Why not?
How come you do not have livebots in
the Merlyn books? – Amorella
2206
hours. You didn’t include them Amorella and I don’t want to confuse the reader
by piling on more questions at so whether livebots like Ava would develop a ‘heartansoulanmind’.
As a machine is not born and does not die at an organic biochemical ‘machine’,
I cannot imagine a livebot gathering a ‘soul’ but what do I know. And, you are
right – the books have machinery but it does not look marsupial humanoid. I
guess my question would be, why is this, what did the marsupial humanoids learn
from developing livebots?
Post using ‘livebots’ in the blog title
piece. – Amorella
Add
the ‘criticism’ you just posted on your FB page, then post. - Amorella
***
We saw the art film “Ex Machina” this afternoon. It is a
character study thus to me an art film. I enjoyed it but it was not Carol’s cup
of tea. There are three main characters, and a minor fourth. Will humankind
create a ‘livebot’? (I saw this term used with a hyphen in a criticism of the
film.) I think we will. Then the question will be ‘Since the livebot has a
strong sense of consciousness and one cannot tell if ‘she/he’ is human or
livebot does the livebot have a heart and soul and mind as seemingly real as a
Homo sapiens does? The question says more about the human who creates the
question than it does the livebot. To me, that’s how one can always tell who
the human being is by studying the questions they ask. Hey, if you think you
will like such a film, go to it.
***
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